Deerhoof release single disguised as EP, taunt fans with video of awesome times in Tokyo, tour

Are bands just calling ‘singles’ ‘EPs’ now? TMT loves Deerhoof, and new Deerhoof is always welcome, but this seems a bit suspect. Yes, it’s all just semantics, but let’s break the We Do Parties ‘EP’ down anyway:

• 01. The title track is from Deerhoof’s 2012 full-length release Breakup Song.
• 02. Track 02 appears to be a remix of another track from Breakup Song by Silver Apple’s The Simeon.
• 03. Track 03 is indeed a new song. Hooray!
• 04. A live cover of a Velvet Underground song. Awesome, but not exactly album-material.

Survey says: single. But again, if you’re a Deerhoof fan, who cares. They’ve put an album out just about every year for over a decade, so there’s probably lots of truly new Deerhoof just around the corner.

To get folks excited about the ‘EP,’ the band has released a video (courtesy of Pitchfork) for the title track (below) featuring Satomi and company having quite the good time out on the town. One might even say, in broken English, that they’re “doing a party.”

Last but not least, there’s always the real thing: Deerhoof live, (when AREN’T they on tour??) a not-to-be-missed experience. Full tourdates down below the video of Deerhoof shredding up Tokyo.

Saints, that’s what they are over at Thrill Jockey. For years, they’ve been giving a good home to some of our finest indie rock, folk, and experimental musicians. Just the other day, they took in Date Palms, the wide-eyed, hungry duo of Gregg Kowalsky and Marielle Jakobsons. With their loving hands, Thrill Jockey will feed them, wash them, and release their third record The Dusted Sessions in June.

Without a good home, the mixture of modern drone and eastern traditional music the band offers on The Dusted Sessions may have wilted in the hot sun. Thankfully, the band went into LCR Studio with producer Phil Manley (Wooden Shjips, The Alps, Oneida) and recorded the album as a quintet. That very quintet made the album with electric bass, violin, tanpura, keyboards, and, for the first time in the band’s recorded history, GUITARS. Thrill Jockey, putting guitars in the hands of musicians who didn’t really use guitars before. God bless ‘em.

More details to come, but for now check out a clip from their 2011 performance at the San Francisco Zen Center.

Yo, what’s up, all you filthy bitches? Did you know that dirty bastard Alex Zhang Hungtai from Dirty Beaches (the bitch who bastarded that badass record Badlands in 2011) was releasing a filthy, bitchy, new double-album this May with those sons-of-bastards at Zoo Music??? Because, personally? I, for one… did NOT! But then, like, I mo-friggin’ read about that shit straight from the Zoo Music website’s horse’s mouth’s website, and then again at the sites I always be check-a-leckin’, and ALL A SUDDEN? BAM! I straight-up KNEW that shit: ON-TO-LOGI-CAL-LY!

The bastard is called Drifters/Love Is The Devil and drops on May 21 (May 20 in Europe). According to Zoo Music’s PEEPS, “both records together are 16 songs and about 75 minutes of music. Drifters/Love Is The Devil will also be available as a single CD and single digital download.” To which I’m like, “DAY-UM.” And then I hear this shit on the TWITTERsphere about how he took it upon his badASS Bitch-self to share a track from Love is the Devil, saying:

I’m leaking 1 track from love is the devil. I’ve never been good at business. But this is my heart & soul. I need to get this off my chest. this title track has blood & tears all over it and is the sound of my empty self. I need to share this before it becomes something else. we always hurt the ones we love the most. I’m a rotten piece of shit. blast it LOUD if your hearts broken.

Umm… yeah? BLAM-O, motherfuckers!!! Eh, who am I kidding? The mood is gone.

Lawrence D. “Butch” Morris, an improvising musician who pioneered a system of ensemble interaction he called conduction, has died at a hospital in New York City, his publicist confirmed. He had lung cancer, which was diagnosed last August. He was 65.

Morris, a Vietnam War veteran, first gained recognition among musicians as a cornet player. His most prominent impact, however, came as a bandleader of structured improvisation. He devised a vocabulary of gestures, signifying actions for musicians to follow: repeat, sustain, play louder, among others. Standing in front of an ensemble, which only sometimes had written scores in front of it, he then deployed those gestures according to his imagination and intuition. His musicians were free to interpret them as they saw fit, giving the performances a distinct flavor of unpredictability and intimacy.

Canada has produced many a fine thing, such as You Can’t Do That on Television, high-stacked burger challenges, maple syrup, a functioning healthcare system, funny accents, and of course, Colin fucking Stetson, bursting blood vessels out of his straining neck as he fires heavy breaths into his enormous sax for your listening pleasure. And this Canadian is making his solo comeback this spring with New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light, due out April 30 on Constellation.

As with the last installment of the Warfare series, the new LP was recorded live in single takes, with guest vocals — this time contributed by Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, with whom Stetson plays with in Bon Iver — being the only overdubs. The whole shebang was mixed by Australian-gone-Icelander Ben Frost. Check the release page for more details and to preorder on CD or double-LP.

Take a listen to the album’s third track, “High Above a Grey Green Sea,” via Constellation’s SoundCloud and then clean yourself up, because this awesomeness may give you the squirts.

New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light tracklist:

01. And in Truth
02. Hunted
03. High Above a Grey Green Sea
04. In Mirrors
05. Brute
06. Among the Sef
07. Who the Waves Are Roaring For
08. To See More Light
09. What Are They Doing in Heaven Today
10. This Bed of Shattered Bone
11. Part of Me Apart From You

You know, I was JUST wondering when Thee Oh Sees would release an album this year. They’ve released at least one LP of garage craziness every year since 2004 and have never shown any signs of calling it quits.

Seems that once spring rolls around, we’ll get our annual dose of wild, freaked-out, and possibly creepy psych-punk when Thee Oh Sees release Floating Coffin on April 16 via John Dwyer’s own Castle Face Records. Floating Coffin follows last year’s Putrifiers II (TMT Review), which skulked its way onto our Favorite Albums of 2012 list. Dwyer explained the nightmarish vibe of Floating Coffin by saying that “these songs occur in the mindset of a world that’s perpetually war-ridden.. .overall, it’s pretty dark, and much heavier than our other albums.”

Now I’m wondering just how many albums Thee Oh Sees will release this year…